Get the ball rolling!

I mentioned this in one of my Valentine posts, and if you get Family Fun you already know all about it, but this truly may be my favorite method of painting for toddlers. It's interactive, creative, and almost mess free! Valentine's was the first time we tried it and we haven't done it since, but the other day, completely out of the blue, D said to me, "I want to paint with balls." So we did. And it was fun.

So here is what you do: You need a bin of some sort; preferrably one with a lid, but that's not necessary (just helps even more to contain the mess). You need some paint (I used Crayolas washable poster paints). And you need some balls (preferably small ones - we used a couple of small bouncy balls and a plastic golf ball). Put some paper in the bin, add some blobs of paint around the paper in the colors of your toddler's choice (I didn't let him touch the paint containers, or the paint at all for that matter, I just asked him to tell me the colors he wanted), and drop in the balls. Put on the lid and let the little guy roll away. You can shimmy, shake, make the earth quake (so sorry I had to throw some Shania in there), and the mess stays contained in the bin. You don't even have to supervise much.Ok, so we did take the lid off after a bit, and then I had to supervise a little more, but still. . .

Look at that! We're all done and not a drop of paint on him, or my table, or anywhere else I don't want it to be. The only clean-up? Washing off the balls and wiping out the tub (although there really isn't that much to wipe out because most of the paint is on the paper). So go get rolling! And smile, because you don't have a big mess to clean up afterward.